Midway working on Area 52, Criminal

For a top-secret government facility, Area 51 is pretty infamous. And for an unannounced sequel to a popular franchise, Midway's Area 52 is not being kept under especially tight wraps, it seems.

New job postings on GameDev.net this week indicate that Midway Games is planning both a sequel to its 2005 first-person shooter Area 51, as well as a new game known for the moment simply as Criminal.

The job postings don't reveal much about the games, but there are scraps to divine. For instance, a listing for an Area 52 animator position lists familiarity with the Unreal Engine and first-person shooters as a bonus qualification. A listing for a visual effects animator for the game says the hired candidate will be working on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 platforms and says experience with physics-based systems is a plus.

As for Criminal, the position for an environment modeler on the game says Midway is looking for someone with the ability to quickly pick up next-gen tech like the Unreal Engine 3, with experience modeling and texturing "photo-realistic subject matter." The posting for a cinematic lead artist for the game says the company wants someone to make real-time and prerendered cinemas "for cutting-edge games for PS3, Xbox 360."

I liked Area 51, a lot of people didnt notice how much work was put into the graphics but the lifespan of the game was poor. I loved all the conspiracy theories you see during the game like a studio where the moon landing was filmed. Infact I feel like playing the game right now.

I agree area 52 is a horrible name but i'm guessing that they're trying to follow in the footsteps of ocean's 12, 13, etc. It's just alittle too cliche for that title and hopefully it's just a "working title" and not the final one. To me it would be better if it were Area 51: "fill in the blank". BTW area 51 wasn't that bad, it was a "safe" fps that didn'y stray too far from the formula that's all.

It's a bad name but don't just assume it can't be any good because the first one wasnt that great... personally the first game had some potentional and it even had great graphics (for the time) but the gameplay came out just kinda meh... but maybe they will learn from their mistakes and make the second game pretty good

Area 51 was a decent game. It makes sense to try to improve on the flaws of Area 51. But Unreal Engine? Hellz yeah! PS3 and Xbox 360? Hellz yeah again!
And now, for Criminal. I'm guessing this will be some kind of GTA clone, maybe? I dunno. But once again....Unreal Engine? Hellz yeah!

Area 51 was actually decent hope the second one improves upon 51 flaws
lets face it people many said that the game was bad but gamers still bought the game...it was one of those "guilty pleasure" games